First American review of a Northwood

[Diable]

GamePC has posted a review of the 2.0A "Northoowd" P4. Oh yea they got there chip up to 2.5GHz. I drunk to much and I'm good to bed, see ya

 

[AndyHui]

A nice 5-10% boost across the board for all benchmarks, I see.

Still has problems with against the Athlon XP 2000+ with number crunchers like LAME MP3 encoding and 3DSMax though. Overclocking prospects are excellent.

I would have liked to see them test with the ASUS P4S333 alongside the usual crew of ASUS P4 motherboards.

 

[Bluga]

<< Considering that many enthusiasts already have it in their heads that Northwood was going to be the end-all, be-all performance chip of the day, the Northwood will be considered a disappointment. >>

 

[GTaudiophile]

If I can get a Northwood 2.0A tomorrow for ~$400, I'm building my new system! I've waited too damned long!

 

[Challenger]

Where for $400?

 

[Degenerate]

Dont forget the faster 2.2Ghz

 

[GTaudiophile]

<< Where for $400? >>



I said if! I have no idea who will offer Northwood and for how much. I've read that the 2.0A version should cost around $400 while the 2.2Ghz version will cost around $600.

 

[WilsonTung]

Well, that wasn't so great. But the MP3 and 3DStudio Max tests didn't have SSE2 - I am wondering if this would help some...

The only redeeming quality of this chip seems to be overclocking. There are clearly no architectural improvements at all.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

<< Well, that wasn't so great. But the MP3 and 3DStudio Max tests didn't have SSE2 - I am wondering if this would help some... >>

the photoshop benchmark did include the sse2 p4 patch, and was still beat by the athlon 1.67.

im really kinda suprised, i was expecting the northwood to keel the athlon line. it beats it in alot of stuff, but not like i thought it would. like in 3dmark2001 was only 160 higher at 8000 (2%). anywhere from 0-11% faster on most tests. a respectable gain, but the price is kinda high...

maybe the 2.2 will keel it. or have i missed something?

 

[AGodspeed]

That's right, Photoshop 6.01 includes a Pentium 4 specific SSE2 patch, and was still beat by the 2000+.[/i]

Overall, the 2.0A can't really compete with the 2000+, but I'm betting the 2.2A will even things up. The overclocking potential of NW makes me wet my pants.

 

[christoph83]

Overall, the 2.0A can't really compete with the 2000+, but I'm betting the 2.2A will even things up. The overclocking potential of NW makes me wet my pants.

I agree,and the best overclocking it seems is done on the i845D chipset,or the Asus P4b266 motherboard. The P4T-E only did a 10% overclock.

 

[x86]

AMD said that the Athlon XP 2000+ is supposedly 20-30% faster than its "competitor" (I wonder who this could be) at PR:Clock Speeds. The Athlon XP comparatively to the Pentium 4 2000Mhz is just about 5% faster in all of the benchmarks.

Don't forget about the 2.2 Ghz, it was just the 2 Ghz that was benched. Also remember the fact that the Northwood is just a "transitional" processor. The next step is the Northwood-B which will have a 533Mhz FSB (133 X 4). This processor should be fully compatable with any MB with an FSB adjustment to 133 X 4, all it will need is a BIOS flash. It should come out around June.

If I may add to Photoshop, the Northwood @ 2Ghz beats the Athlon XP 2000+ w/ nForce by .2 seconds. This is not a big deal, but AMD is not living up to its word.

 

[Sunner]

Seems to me like the overclocking potential will be the big thing about Northwood.

Not exactly earth shattering performance at default speed.

Dont get me wrong, it's certainly very fast, and clearly the fastest overall CPU out there, but Im slightly disapointed.

 

[JellyBaby]

<< The only redeeming quality of this chip seems to be overclocking. There are clearly no architectural improvements at all. >>

At .13u it runs at 1.5 volts, cooler than Willies and you can cool this chip very effectively and silently. The cache was upped to 512 KB. Improvements exist but nothing to shatter the earth. The oc potential is nice.

<< Also remember the fact that the Northwood is just a "transitional" processor. >>

All processors are transitional these days. There's always something better in 3-6 months.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

<< AMD said that the Athlon XP 2000+ is supposedly 20-30% faster than its "competitor" >>

where did you get this from? AMD has said that their XP ratings apply to their own thunderbird line. like the xp1600 is the equivelant of a 1.6ghz thunderbird, which they are being conservative anyway. we all know what it was really for, but AMD claims to base it off of the thunderbirds.

i havent seen them flat out say that it's based against the p4, that would be a legal nightmare.

 

[Tom]

I'm wondering what the chances are of getting a 1.8g Northwood to run at 533 FSB which would be about 2.4g ?

I'm hopeful that might be the best chance for a good price/performance system.

 

[thraxes]

Well that settles it... the diffrence in performance in 3D-Max (all that I really care for anyway) is so big that I will go AMD on my upgrade.

Hmm would have done it anyway because of the price

 

[Ryan]

Hmm, I can't wait for thoroughbred

 

[Duvie]

I think the 2.2ghz northwood will claim an all out victory against the 533mhz slower 2000+, but I think that will be short-lived....

I think it is a game between the 2 of them...never pull to far away and "tit for tat"

I don't buy based on ocing probability anyway since it is so speculative on whether I can obtain it...too many variables, ie other pieces of hardware that can't run out of spec if board doesn't have appropriate dividers, software programs that don't like ocing, etc....

 

[Mltsao]

Looks like the P4 is improving. High potenial in overclocking.

Im still sticking with AMD though until intel lowers its prices and improves the P4's preformance in the benchmarks that the AThlonXP woops its ass in.

 

[BFG10K]

A tad disappointing to say the least. Even the 2.2 GHz version will probably get beaten by the Palomino 1.67 GHz plus it'll cost more than the AMD unit.

 

[Duvie]

That being said it is tough to recommend or buy a system that beats the competition by average 10-15 percent (conservative 2.2ghz northwood scores) in most marks to cost nearly double the cpu cost...p4 boards run a tad higher...ram is nearly nell now as sis645 I feel outperforms the rdram...

I think ocing factor maybe the only real logical decision factor for purchasing it....

 

[x86]

<<

<< AMD said that the Athlon XP 2000+ is supposedly 20-30% faster than its "competitor" >>

where did you get this from? AMD has said that their XP ratings apply to their own thunderbird line. like the xp1600 is the equivelant of a 1.6ghz thunderbird, which they are being conservative anyway. we all know what it was really for, but AMD claims to base it off of the thunderbirds.

i havent seen them flat out say that it's based against the p4, that would be a legal nightmare. >>



They are saying that they are basing it upon their T-birds because they aren't going to say that their competitor is Intel. It is more than obvious that they would like to compare themselves with Intel's Pentium 4 to detour the customer to buy THEIR product.

 

[x86]

<< I'm wondering what the chances are of getting a 1.8g Northwood to run at 533 FSB which would be about 2.4g ?

I'm hopeful that might be the best chance for a good price/performance system. >>



The Northwoods scale from 2.0 Ghz and up. The Northwood-B 533 FBS units will probably have a lower multiplier if that is what you mean.

 

[x86]

<< Well that settles it... the diffrence in performance in 3D-Max (all that I really care for anyway) is so big that I will go AMD on my upgrade.

Hmm would have done it anyway because of the price >>



If memory serves me, I believe the Northwood beat the Athlon XP 2000+.